To be really shocked about periods

[Belindamaee]

My periods have always been what I considered normal.

Small amount of blood. Definitely not enough for any leaking. One normal sized pad will do and I could keep it on all day before changing it but change it every few hours for sanitary purposes.

If I buy a tampon it will stay in for about 5 hours without leaking nor needing to be changed.

There just isn't much blood. No pain. Nothing. In fact, I forget I'm on my period.

I do however have horrid symptoms prior to my period so it evens out. Awfully sore boobs, water retention that makes me look a stone heavier, headache, low mood.

So I don't have it easy!

Anyway, this has come up as my friend was telling me she has to use a pad with a tampon as a tampon would leak if it was just used on its own. She said she has to lie flat in bed when using a pad because otherwise she would leak and she has to change her pad every three hours.

I was wondering what was normal?

AIBU to think my circumstances are more common than hers? Or do my periods seem unusually light?

Its such a comfort to discover that I'm not alone in having heavy periods when there is nothing wrong!! My daughter aged 17 still only uses a pad at night - I was never able to do that! Always needed a super plus tampon and a pad for nighttime and still had to change at least once during the night on the two heaviest days.

Now 30 years later I use a mooncup and, like PP, counted the number of times I emptied it (10-15mls a time) and calculated I lost in the region of 160mls of blood! most of that in the first 48 hours. Now I take iron tablets daily which keeps anaemia under control

However thats as normal for me as the OP's flow is for her! Who would be a woman eh?!!!

Mine are very heavy with large clots. They used to be agony but childbearing sorted that out.

Ibupren helped reduce the bleeding and with pain but I can't take them anymore thanks to stomach ulcers.

I'm in bed as it's a Heavy flow and I'm anaemic.

The woman I have talked to about flooding during peri menopause, understand what it is. It seems to be very common, and as mentioned previously, it is not heavy periods. But then I am of the age were all my friends are talking about this, and I was shocked when it started to realise how little I knew.

Roomster flooding isn't over 2/3 hours....flooding is when you literally flood a large amount in one go and generally need to change the towel straight away.

No, there isn't an official definition of "flooding". It is subjective which was my point!

I think there is a range of normal.

I've never experienced flooding or heavy bleeding. I'm rarely in pain.

I usually only bleed for four days and after the first night I don't need I use anything at all overnight. It just stops.

It's only recently I've realised this is probably not usual - I knew not everyone was like this but I did think it was a lot more common to be like me than not IYSWIM.

I think there is a range of normal.

I've never experienced flooding or heavy bleeding. I'm rarely in pain.

I usually only bleed for four days and after the first night I don't need I use anything at all overnight. It just stops.

It's only recently I've realised this is probably not usual - I knew not everyone was like this but I did think it was a lot more common to be like me than not IYSWIM.

It worries/angers me when I read threads like this. How can so many people (doctors, women) be so ignorant about the range of experiences from periods? They're such a normal part of life, and can affect women so much.

It is important to know what is 'normal' or 'average' otherwise, how do we know when to get help? I have always had heavy periods (and ALL other symptoms of underactive thyroid) but even when I was seeing a gynecologist about problems with conception, they brushed aside my comments about heavy periods as being irrelevant.

Well - I have an under active thyroid, low iron, low Vit D, and fibroids. Why wouldn't the doctors pay attention to that when I was desperate to have a baby? I was obviously unwell, and the heavy periods were part of it. But I got ignored, and spent tens of thousands of pounds on fertility treatment to have a child. I really do believe that if a doctor had bothered to listen to me, and investigated, that I would have a completely different life, perhaps with more than one child. But no, heavy periods are just one of those things.

Rant over.

Yours sound very light.
Mine are up to 7 days long, always painful and flooding the first two days. I can go through a pack of 16 towels in those two days. Then just bleed normally until day six when it gets lighter
Have been like that all my life

Guys and St Thomas definition of flooding is.....
'‘Flooding’– when bleeding is so heavy that seating or sheets become soaked with blood
while sitting or lying down.'

That doesn't mean it is an "official definition though Verbena. NHS choices just says that one indication that blood loss is excessive is if
you experience flooding (heavy bleeding) through to your clothes or bedding.

What I mean by flooding, is the sudden wooosh of blood that comes out. Lots of it. I had never had this till peri menopause, and have spoken to other friends who have experienced it too. Since I have only talked to about 8 women about this, and at least half had experienced this at least a few times at peri menopause, then I suspect it is not uncommon.

'‘Flooding’– when bleeding is so heavy that seating or sheets become soaked with blood
while sitting or lying down.'

Surely it depends how often you're changing your towel/tampon, in any case.

Hahaha mctat

Flooding is when your tampon/towel/mooncup is overwhelmed and you end up with blood running down your legs or similar. You can have just changed your sanpro, or be within normal bounds and then there's a whoosh and it's everywhere. Nothing will contain it. It's pretty unpleasant and can be very embarrassing, not to mention inconvenient.

I overflowed a mooncup within 10 minutes of changing it in a flooding incident. I don't think changing more often would have helped or been practicable.

It would also depend on how absorbent the towel/tampon is. DD (who does bleed quite heavily) asked a friend for a sanitary towel recently when she was staying at her house and found her friend uses very thin ones (DD suggested they were panty liners).

My period rules my life. It starts with the moods I turn into a different person then i come back when it's all over. I was very heavy when I was young so yes tampon and pad i could never have one or the other it had to be both. I leaked alot at school and went to the doctors in the end. Since having my daughter my periods haven't been as heavy I do still leak mainly at night but it doesn't last the whole period like it did before.

I have always considered my periods to be pretty odd.

Odd things - they are frequent, every 19-22 days. They start with a pink smear around 24hours before so I know they are coming. I use 3-4 sanitary towels per period. That's not me being gross, I only need anything on the first day or so, often not even that. After that, I just have these annoying smears. It means I can't use a tampon as it would emerge dry (I've tried this and it is awful) a pad is total overkill but nothing means stained pants. Very annoying.

I know I'm lucky not to have horrible periods, I do have a day of ovulation pain and a day of cramps every time which is annoying but not debilitating. But I do consider mine strange, from what I hear from other people.

Interesting we have just been to the GP.
Dds period looked like she had been attacked this weekend and she has just been put on medication to decrease the blood loss.

I had endometriosis and heavy periods and pain so bad I used to vomit :(

Can anyone recommend towels actually for very heavy loss? Dd can't use tampons.

Mine used to be like yours, I never appreciated them until now.
Mine are really heavy now and for 2 days I have to use super plus tampon that lasts 90 minutes if I'm lucky, I always use a night time maxi pad at all times because the tampons leak on their own. I get a lot of pain during my periods plus pmt and ovulation pain. Doctor says its normal though

After the night I use Always Ultra Long. I tried the new Always ones....Inifinity? Or something?
Anyway, they weren't good at all and didn't work. It was hard to tell if they needed changing because all of the blood was held inside the pad.....but by the time you could see it, it was mega full and leaking.

Thank you

Both are normal for the individual. Mine used to be REALLY heavy id have to change a long super absorbant every 2 hours! Now im on the pill they are not as bad but still change regularly. 5 hours us a long time to leave a tampon in!

OP you are both within the wide range of normal but you, luckily are on the nice light end.